Quips can’t Swim, ‘Aquaman’ Drowns in Shallow Plot

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When someone envisions their favorite superhero, it’s a safe bet they’re not thinking about Aquaman. Nevertheless, DC produced a movie starring Jason Momoa in the shoes (or rather gills) of the fishy hero.

With the release of “The Justice League” along with a standalone Wonder Woman movie, it was only a matter of time until the least likeable member got his own feature.

Now let’s clear something up right away. I enjoyed this movie. From a purely entertaining perspective, the movie was just that: entertaining.

However, a lack of cohesive characters, compelling storyline and fresh ideas brought
“Aquaman” to the depths of movies like “Batman v Superman” and “Man of Steel.”

With this being a DC movie I was apprehensive to say the least. And they produced the same thing they’ve done for the past two years: a bland, inoffensive movie that may reach some level of commercial success, but leaves much to be desired on any meaningful level.

The movie watches very similar to something like “Suicide Squad” with nothing driving the movie other than the ideas it wants to touch on and the locations it wants to visit.

It feels as if James Wan, the director, picked some scenes and ideas he wanted from various, unconnected comics and threw those scenes onto the big screen: scenes which don’t work without the context that made them work.

The story is about as simple as they come. Aquaman is good. Orm, Aquaman’s brother is bad. They fight. Other than an adventure to get an ancient powerful weapon to defeat his brother with, (never heard that one before) that’s it. That’s the story.

The acting itself is pretty standard. There weren’t really any major moments from anyone, with Momoa acting at his normal steady pace and everyone following his lead.

However, decent acting doesn’t save a script that portrays its characters as little more than stereotyped, flat characters. Any glimmer of dynamic characters that the source material conveyed has been cut in favor of quippy one-liners and generic action.

I can only recommend this movie under the understanding that it is, simply put, a copy-paste action movie that partly takes place underwater. It’s entertaining, sure, but hardly a movie you need to see right this second.